Ceri Radford is Assistant Comment Editor of the Telegraph.

What makes women unhappy

"Regarding yourself as a commodity that wants (but really, needs) bedecking in other commodities is not conducive to emotional well-being."

That's got to hurt

So speaks Oliver James in Affluenza, his account of how 'selfish capitalism' and its nefarious values are spreading an epidemic of distress throughout the English-speaking world. I reread the section on women after my skirmish with Fay Weldon last week.

While in general James plays down the gender differences that Weldon puffs up into irritating stereotypes, he does claim that certain elements of modern society impact specifically on women.

So, in James's view, the beauty industry, the diet industry, the cosmetic surgery industry all prey on women's insecurities and turn them into miserable, soulless serial consumers, forever frustrating themselves with comparisons to unattainable ideals.

Stretching his irksome metaphor of affluenza as a global virus akin to HIV, he offers the following 'vaccines' to safeguard women's happiness:

1. Rediscover the meaning of beauty by observing small (three- to eight-year-old) children2. When trying on clothes in a shop and looking at yourself in the mirror, forget what others might think.3. When considering cosmetic appearance-enhancing purchases, ask yourself, 'Will this make me more beautiful?'4. If you are middle-aged, ruthlessly interrogate any desire you have to look younger5. Stop reading women's magazines!

To be honest, I don't entirely buy it. I think the best remedy is more simple: get a sense of perspective and something more interesting to do with your time. It's not as if anyone has your head in a vice and match-sticks in your eye lids forcing you to readÂ Cosmo and watch America's Next Top Model. Western capitalism may be soulless, but it's not coercive. And what's wrong with the odd bit of consumerist vanity, as long as it's not the sole burning passion of your life?

James has recently released a follow-up to Affluenza called The Selfish Capitalist: Origins of Affluenza, in which he apparently expounds onÂ his theory thatÂ modern market economics causes profound malaise. I found the sections on Affluenza that focussed on mental health interesting, so will probably give it a read.